Parallel editing, or the ability to make two separate actions happen at the sametime, was innovated by D.W. Griffith and is exclusive to films. Action films area good source for these, as they give the impression of tensely reaching aclimax in the film. In Vampires, by John Carpenter (1998), there are twosequences which include parallel editing. The first example happens rather earlyin the movie. At this point, a team of vampire slayers commissioned by theCatholic Church are having a party at a motel. this occurs after they slayed allthe vampires in a nearby nest, losing the head vampire, Valek. The parallelaction begins when the three survivors come back to the motel during daylight inorder to bury the The sequence goes as follows: The jeep Montoya and Katrina arein drives onto the road. you see Montoya snaking on some food Jack is puttingdecapitated heads in a blood-stained white sheet. The jeep continues drivingdown a small road. Jack sets the motel on fire, and buries the bag of heads in ashallow grave. Shot of Jack in a truck. Some rosary beads with a crucifix areviolently swinging from the rearview mirror of Jacks truck. He stares at it.
It gives the sense that Jack has done something that he should be disturbed by,but he is successful at blocking out his emotions. Montoya and the dazed Katrinacheck into a hotel room. Montoya is made to be very impatient and unnecessarilyvulgar. Jack is at a payphone talking to someone. He says that his team waskilled. In the background across the street is a large brick wall with a verycolorful mural of the Virgin Mary. It cuts to Montoya watching the news in thehotel room, and he is watching the news coverage of the burning motel room. Itgives the effect that although there is a definite supernatural element, theincident was very real and many innocent people were brutally killed. Jack is ata church being treated for his wounds at a church or somewhere religious. Thiscreates the feeling that Jack turns to religion when he needs it, and he feelsburdened by it at other times. The sequence ends with a shot of Valek on top ofa moving train. The whole sequence lasted only a few minutes. The secondsequence is towards the end of the movie. Katrina has been infected by the Valek,and she maintains a psychic link with him. Just before every shot of thevampires, there is a shot of Katrinas face, signaling that it is being viewedby her. The sequence goes as follows: Jack, in the bathroom of the hotel, isasking Father Adam what the vampires are looking for. Shot of Valek and his teamof vampires awakening from the ground and walking to a monastery in a desertousarea. Jack argues with Father Adam because he does not want to tell Jack. Heviolently convinces Father Adam to comply.
